24:5 ‘How 1 beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
and your dwelling places, O Israel!
24:6 They are like 2 valleys 3 stretched forth,
like gardens by the river’s side,
like aloes 4 that the Lord has planted,
and like cedar trees beside the waters.
1 tn Here מָה (mah) has an exclamatory sense: “How!” (see Gen 28:17).
2 tn Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”
3 tn Or “rows of palms.”
4 sn The language seems to be more poetic than precise. N. H. Snaith notes that cedars do not grow beside water; he also connects “aloes” to the eaglewood that is more exotic, and capable of giving off an aroma (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 298).